You ever have a game that, no matter how hard you tried, and no matter how many times you tried, you just couldn't beat it?

Well, that happened to me back in 2003. There was this game, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. And I absolutely loved it. It was engaging, and hilarious. And with my Gameboy Player, I was able to play the game on my TV, so my dad would watch, creating that many more memories of the game (he found it quite hilarious as well).

The game ended up becoming one of my favorite games of all time. But there was one problem. I never beat it.

The final boss in that game is rough. Like any good JRPG final boss, it has two forms. The first form isn't especially difficult, but the problem is that at the start of the second form, Mario and Luigi only have 1 HP a piece, regardless of how well or poorly you were doing. And, of course, the second phase starts with the bosses turn, or rather turns, as the boss gets three turns (or each part of the boss gets a turn, and there's three parts to it). So, you have to successfully dodge/counter its attacks, because if you die on that first turn, it's game over. And then you reload from the last save, and have to fight the first phase all over again.

And, despite my numerous attempts, I never beat the final boss back in 2003. Eventually I just gave up. Until today.

See, the other day, I brought my GameCube over to my cousins' house so we could celebrate the Cube's 10th anniversary, but beforehand, I noticed that my copy of Superstar Saga was still in the Gameboy Player. So, I took it out and put it with my DS and all my Gameboy games. And, today, I decided to give the game a try (rather than the various essays I need to write within the next couple weeks).

And, after three or four tries, I beat it! Then it turned out that there was a little bit of platforming afterwords (which was timed, and I almost ran out, which would have been terrible), but I did it! I BEAT THE GAME!

I can't tell you how good it felt. This was something that's been in the back of my head for around 8 years. And I finally beat it!

Man, that felt good. Now I know how my dad felt when he beat the story mode in Diddy Kong Racing 9 years after starting that (though he didn't play it for 7 1/2 years). Yes, that actually happened.

So, now thinking about it, there's only one other game I haven't beaten that I feel like I need to: Dead Rising. But I'll take another stab at that game another day. For now, I bask in the glory of my accomplishment.

So, anyone else have stories of years spent trying to beat games (or coming back years later and beating something)?

Also, I am happy.

Oh, and I feel like I should say that I beat the other Mario and Luigi games a long while ago. And the Paper Mario games. So I'm caught up on the Mario RPGs that I've played. And yes, I know about the one I haven't. I'll get on that one day. Watching Chrono Trigger has definitely increased my interest in JRPGs (especially 2D SNES-ish ones).

You ever have a game that, no matter how hard you tried, and no matter how many times you tried, you just couldn't beat it?

Well, that happened to me back in 2003. There was this game, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. And I absolutely loved it. It was engaging, and hilarious. And with my Gameboy Player, I was able to play the game on my TV, so my dad would watch, creating that many more memories of the game (he found it quite hilarious as well).

The game ended up becoming one of my favorite games of all time. But there was one problem. I never beat it.

The final boss in that game is rough. Like any good JRPG final boss, it has two forms. The first form isn't especially difficult, but the problem is that at the start of the second form, Mario and Luigi only have 1 HP a piece, regardless of how well or poorly you were doing. And, of course, the second phase starts with the bosses turn, or rather turns, as the boss gets three turns (or each part of the boss gets a turn, and there's three parts to it). So, you have to successfully dodge/counter its attacks, because if you die on that first turn, it's game over. And then you reload from the last save, and have to fight the first phase all over again.

And, despite my numerous attempts, I never beat the final boss back in 2003. Eventually I just gave up. Until today.

See, the other day, I brought my GameCube over to my cousins' house so we could celebrate the Cube's 10th anniversary, but beforehand, I noticed that my copy of Superstar Saga was still in the Gameboy Player. So, I took it out and put it with my DS and all my Gameboy games. And, today, I decided to give the game a try (rather than the various essays I need to write within the next couple weeks).

And, after three or four tries, I beat it! Then it turned out that there was a little bit of platforming afterwords (which was timed, and I almost ran out, which would have been terrible), but I did it! I BEAT THE GAME!

I can't tell you how good it felt. This was something that's been in the back of my head for around 8 years. And I finally beat it!

Man, that felt good. Now I know how my dad felt when he beat the story mode in Diddy Kong Racing 9 years after starting that (though he didn't play it for 7 1/2 years). Yes, that actually happened.

So, now thinking about it, there's only one other game I haven't beaten that I feel like I need to: Dead Rising. But I'll take another stab at that game another day. For now, I bask in the glory of my accomplishment.

So, anyone else have stories of years spent trying to beat games (or coming back years later and beating something)?

Also, I am happy.

Oh, and I feel like I should say that I beat the other Mario and Luigi games a long while ago. And the Paper Mario games. So I'm caught up on the Mario RPGs that I've played. And yes, I know about the one I haven't. I'll get on that one day. Watching Chrono Trigger has definitely increased my interest in JRPGs (especially 2D SNES-ish ones).

I got to the final dungeon of Chrono Trigger and just stopped playing because I didn't really wanna grind out stuff or do some sidequests. After two and a half years, though, I came back to it, and beat it after a couple days. I think that JRPGs have the lowest completion rate out of all games, but when you do beat them, man does it feel good. Especially because you're usually left to a 30 minute ending cutscene.

My cousin took 4 years to beat GTA: SA. I was always with him, watching him play. In the beginning he played without a Memory Card, so, he never got far... He played 8 hours a day but it was useless. The PS2 was owned by my other cousin, so he would play it again just some years after, and when i got my PS2 he was kinda bummed to start all over again. But one day he commited himself to finish the damn thing. I was not there when he finished the game (I was in my Mom's house), but when i met him, the first thing he said to me was: "I beat it. After 4 years." It was awesome.

@MooseyMcMan: Holy crap, I too have had trouble with the final boss. Have yet to beat the game. One day like 6 years ago I finally beat him/herm i don't remember, but DIED during the part where you need to escape the castle in the time limit. I wen't one wrong way to like a dead end, if I had not done that I believe there was plenty of time. I have yet to beat that damn game.

Same thing happened with me and my brother with San Andreas. The part where you have to get your airplane license. Took about 3 or 4 years to figure out we had to bring the planes wheels in by pressing R3..... FUCK YOU GUYS! DON'T JUDGE ME!

I gave up on the part where they made you fight somebody with 1HP left. It was fun while it was fair. I REALLY enjoyed the sort of more action oriented fighting, where you had to time your attacks to make them more powerful, though.

Congrats. I just recently beat a game I was stuck on for about 10 years, Metroid Prime. I got stuck on Metroid Prime (Final Boss) back when the game came out on GCube and was never able to beat him until about a week ago when I replayed the game from the Trilogy.

@Cloudenvy: Don't worry, it's only Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG I'm interested in. And I can watch one of them.

@MasturbatingestBear: Yeah. After a couple of failed attempts at the boss, I actually looked up a guide online to see if there was anything I was missing (and I wasn't), and I noticed the post-boss stuff. I didn't read too much into it, at least not until I was down to about a minute and a half left. Then I accidentally busted the the barrel, and had to leave and come back and get back into it. But I did it! With only a slight amount of help from the internet. Don't judge me!

@Cloudenvy: Don't worry, it's only Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG I'm interested in. And I can watch one of them.

@MasturbatingestBear: Yeah. After a couple of failed attempts at the boss, I actually looked up a guide online to see if there was anything I was missing (and I wasn't), and I noticed the post-boss stuff. I didn't read too much into it, at least not until I was down to about a minute and a half left. Then I accidentally busted the the barrel, and had to leave and come back and get back into it. But I did it! With only a slight amount of help from the internet. Don't judge me!

After reading this post I picked up my DS lite and my Super star saga, which I keep in my headboard of my bed. I was dominating the boss and remembered all of the timing despite not having played in 6 years. When I got to the 2nd form she didn't go first so I healed up with nuts. I was just crushing her right now realizing that I could probably finally see the ending. And just now, less than a minute before writing this, the game froze...

All sprites disappeared off screen, music keeps going with only the firey background. I am pissed and probably never going to try again.

Congratulations on beating something which has laughed in my face for the past 7 years and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.

Knights of the old republic but it wasnt out of difficulty, the disk was scratched so I couldnt continue. Also Chrono Trigger near the end, I just couldnt beat the sidequests near the end and I lost the DS cart about a year ago, I could always start all over again.

Haha, I got stuck on the exact same part in Mario & Luigi and ended up selling the game. It's not something I normally do (especially not with JRPGs as they tend to retain their value -- in fact, I probably sold it for more than I paid for it), but I just got so frustrated that I wanted the game out of my house. It wasn't until a year or two later that I decided to just download a save file off GameFAQs and give it another go on an emulator and finally beat it. The uploader was probably slightly higher leveled than I was, so maybe that was cheating a bit, but eh, it was good enough for me. Oh, and I made sure to create a save state after the timer started so I wouldn't run into that scenario MasturbatingBear described. Think I may have actually had to reload it too, but eh, at that point I just didn't care anymore.

Another game where I got stuck on the final boss was Chrono Trigger. Eventually I had done most of the sidequests and just wanted to beat the game already, but the boss would wipe out my entire party in a single attack. I painstakingly managed to make it an additional 20 secs into the battle by swapping in a different party member that was able to withstand the first attack, and giving a one-time auto-revive item to another, but I still ended up getting obliterated by the next attack and just had to give up on the game. About 4 years later I finally came back to it, spent about 1 hour doing the remaining sidequests (not including the bonus dungeon -- never bothered with that), and beat the final boss on first try with relative ease. Seriously, that was all it took. Like 2 or 3 levels and some new equipment. The level/equipment requirements for the final boss are extremely strict. I guess that's how they prevent the player from beating the game prematurely (which you're not supposed to do until New Game+).

I remember that boss fight! It was so long and frustrating. You needed to constantly be "on" and ready to deflect attacks with both brothers. God forbid one of them go down while Cackletta sends out another pattern of attacks. Congratulations on beating the game!

My great shame is that I could never beat Dr. Wily in Mega Man 7. I had a ton of lives and canisters when I fought him one summer night years ago, but he eroded away all of my lives and canisters until I was sitting in front of my TV at 4 AM looking at a Game Over screen. I could never bring myself to go back to that game and take another shot at him.

That game was great, man. Though I do remember beating the boss on the first try... (Though I may have been over-leveled, I DID have a lot of time for grinding. I was on a medical ship in Fiji at the time chilling out and playing Gameboy while my mom did eye and dental surgeries for villagers and shit... man my childhood was weird.

Don't tell anyone this...but I never beat Super Mario Bros. for the NES or Super Mario World for the SNES. I never beat Donkey Kong Country for SNES either. I also never beat Sonic...something for the Sega Genesis. Never beat Toe Jam and Earl. Never beat Banjo Kazooie...all of these were 10+ years ago. So I was around...7-10 years old. Look at all these classic games I never beat. What a shame :P

Great write-up, and a really enjoyable read. Reading this reminded me of a similar experience I had a couple of years ago, when I finally beat the end boss of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Mega Drive. A moment around fifteen years in the making, that was, and victory has never been sweeter before or since.

Don't tell anyone this...but I never beat Super Mario Bros. for the NES or Super Mario World for the SNES. I never beat Donkey Kong Country for SNES either. I also never beat Sonic...something for the Sega Genesis. Never beat Toe Jam and Earl. Never beat Banjo Kazooie...all of these were 10+ years ago. So I was around...7-10 years old. Look at all these classic games I never beat. What a shame :P

I'm with ya on that. I am beyond useless at platformers. It's a wonder that I beat Mirror's Edge.

Don't tell anyone this...but I never beat Super Mario Bros. for the NES or Super Mario World for the SNES. I never beat Donkey Kong Country for SNES either. I also never beat Sonic...something for the Sega Genesis. Never beat Toe Jam and Earl. Never beat Banjo Kazooie...all of these were 10+ years ago. So I was around...7-10 years old. Look at all these classic games I never beat. What a shame :P

I'm with ya on that. I am beyond useless at platformers. It's a wonder that I beat Mirror's Edge.

Don't tell anyone this...but I never beat Super Mario Bros. for the NES or Super Mario World for the SNES. I never beat Donkey Kong Country for SNES either. I also never beat Sonic...something for the Sega Genesis. Never beat Toe Jam and Earl. Never beat Banjo Kazooie...all of these were 10+ years ago. So I was around...7-10 years old. Look at all these classic games I never beat. What a shame :P

I'm with ya on that. I am beyond useless at platformers. It's a wonder that I beat Mirror's Edge.

I only made it to chapter 5 or 6 lol.

Haha, I think that's where I left the game for a month or so out of frustration before hunkering down, putting on my best "let's do this thang" face, and punching my gaming Achille's heel in the thyroid.

Which reminds me: I wasted long hours of my childhood wandering around Metroid 2 and never even coming close to beating it. I should probably rectify that while it's on my mind. To the Game Boy emulator! ... And now my mind is reminding me that the music in the GB version of Judge Dredd was awesome. To YouTube!

Don't tell anyone this...but I never beat Super Mario Bros. for the NES or Super Mario World for the SNES. I never beat Donkey Kong Country for SNES either. I also never beat Sonic...something for the Sega Genesis. Never beat Toe Jam and Earl. Never beat Banjo Kazooie...all of these were 10+ years ago. So I was around...7-10 years old. Look at all these classic games I never beat. What a shame :P

I'm with ya on that. I am beyond useless at platformers. It's a wonder that I beat Mirror's Edge.

I only made it to chapter 5 or 6 lol.

Haha, I think that's where I left the game for a month or so out of frustration before hunkering down, putting on my best "let's do this thang" face, and punching my gaming Achille's heel in the thyroid.

Which reminds me: I wasted long hours of my childhood wandering around Metroid 2 and never even coming close to beating it. I should probably rectify that while it's on my mind. To the Game Boy emulator! ... And now my mind is reminding me that the music in the GB version of Judge Dredd was awesome. To YouTube!

Same happened to me when I was little with Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's mask. Both of those games I barely got past the first part. I remember running around a field...killing chickens (Or something like that) and some rock part. Not sure which game that was from. Also remember spider webs and giant plants. Judge Dredd wasn't a bad movie, Rob Schneider was annoying though. Never played the games. I've never played a metroid game either :P

Don't tell anyone this...but I never beat Super Mario Bros. for the NES or Super Mario World for the SNES. I never beat Donkey Kong Country for SNES either. I also never beat Sonic...something for the Sega Genesis. Never beat Toe Jam and Earl. Never beat Banjo Kazooie...all of these were 10+ years ago. So I was around...7-10 years old. Look at all these classic games I never beat. What a shame :P

I'm with ya on that. I am beyond useless at platformers. It's a wonder that I beat Mirror's Edge.

I only made it to chapter 5 or 6 lol.

Haha, I think that's where I left the game for a month or so out of frustration before hunkering down, putting on my best "let's do this thang" face, and punching my gaming Achille's heel in the thyroid.

Which reminds me: I wasted long hours of my childhood wandering around Metroid 2 and never even coming close to beating it. I should probably rectify that while it's on my mind. To the Game Boy emulator! ... And now my mind is reminding me that the music in the GB version of Judge Dredd was awesome. To YouTube!

Same happened to me when I was little with Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's mask. Both of those games I barely got past the first part. I remember running around a field...killing chickens (Or something like that) and some rock part. Not sure which game that was from. Also remember spider webs and giant plants. Judge Dredd wasn't a bad movie, Rob Schneider was annoying though. Never played the games. I've never played a metroid game either :P

Sounds like my Ocarina experience, haha. Except I was 20 when I played it, since I've got a knack for being insanely late to the party. I just don't like Zelda, I guess.

I really liked how hard that boss was, I almost gave up while fighting it myself back then, because I had already seen most of the game and was ready to be done with it. Two of my friends also played it and from what I heard neither of them beat that last boss. They gave up and didn't feel too bad about it apparently. Personally, all the last boss battles in M&L since then have been a bit of a disappointment to me (especially the Partners in Time one, but the double sets of brothers made that whole game too easy).

As for games I've come back to and finished way later there was Dark Chronicle. I finished the last boss and felt like I never wanted to play that again, so when the game threw in a extra prologue chapter and an optional dungeon I just said no. More than a year later I picked it up and had a pretty good time picking up the mechanics again as I went through that final dungeon and defeated the optional boss. It felt good to get proper closure as well.

@imsh_pl: Beating the final song in Ouendan 2 on Hard was one of those rare moments of extreme satisfaction you don't often get playing videogames, and having played all three of these games I found the Quendan 2 final level to be, by far, the hardest one of the bunch also ( it was also the first of the games I played).

I still remember sitting on my bed in the dark, trying over and over again, realizing that in the final moments of the song the pace significantly slows down, which became super stressful. I wanted to hit the notes as fast as they came up but that was no longer viable, I had to slow down, restrain myself and focus on the rings. The attempt where I finally cleared it actually started of poorer than normal, which resulted in me threading the needle at the edge of the life bar all the way to the finish. I did finish it though and when I did it was pure euphoria, I went nuts and started laughing to myself out loud, it was great. That moment is a mayor contributor to that game being on my "Favorite Videogames" list.

Since then I have only been able to finish that level one other time, I still have both replays. Finishing it on Insane difficulty? That will never happen, and as the notes don't really change significantly I am perfectly fine with that. After all, you only love what you don't own completely.

That's insane. I can't imagine how great it must have felt to beat it. Congrats :)

I've been doing this with Final Fantasy XIII. Got it at the Midnight Release and haven't played it very much. I originally took a break because I got stuck at a boss, but then, six months later, when I came back to it, I ended up taking another break until, well, today. I really want to finish it, especially because I've still got waaaaay long to go before I beat it, but I just can't for some reason. Maybe eight years from now I'll be posting the blog. :)